New free PowerShell script editor

Just cheating in the title. I figured that having the words “free” and “new” will automatically make it the one of the most viewed posts of the blog. 😉

However, this is not that far from reality because we have just released PowerGUI 1.0.9 and the biggest new feature is indeed much improved script editor with syntax highlight, intellisense, and tooltips for help:

 

 If you used PowerGUI before (if not you can find these tutorials and flash demos) you know that in most cases you don’t have to script at all and can just search for the functionality you need. However, pretty often you want to create something fancier and type a few lines of code.

PowerGUI 1.0.8 and earlier basically gave you the ever popular Notepad-like functionality. PowerGUI 1.0.9 actually delivers a real script editor with the features you would expect:

1. PowerShell syntax highlight.
2. Intellisense for cmdlets.
3. Intellisense for cmdlet parameters.
4. Intellisense for object properties and menthods (if you specify the type0 including .NET types.
5. Find.
6. Replace.
7. Bookmarks.
8. Regions.
9. Etc., etc., etc.

Because this is v1 of the functionality I am pretty sure we are far from being perfect in all of these so please provide feedback at the PowerGUI discussion forums.

And, the intent was obviously not to compete against more scripter/developer-oriented IDE environments. PowerGUI is more IT professional oriented and better script editing is just a part of providing that experience. If you need debugging and other advanced features you might want to check out what our friends at Shell Tools and SAPIEN are doing.